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Babies: 3 - 6 Months
Night feedings and Dad help
Nathan will wake twice to eat (on a good night) and I typically handle these since I nurse. My h is home all week with the baby since our daycare provider takes this week as vacation. Last night around 4 am it dawned on me that my ass has to get up for work so why am I the one getting up? My husband sleeps right through the baby crying unless I let him go for a minute which I'm usually too tired to let it escalate. My question is, do any of you have dads that share the over night feedings? I pump too so bottles are not a problem. If you BF, do you just take a chilled one out so it's room temp by first feeding? Any feedback is appreciated. My boobs hurt thinking about it but extra sleep would be worth it.
P.S. As I post this I know the chance of my husband not waking me for something is laughable. He will give it a shot if I ask and that's why he's awesome in my book.
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Re: Night feedings and Dad help
I generally handle all the night-time parenting because DD BF's. We bedshare, too, and I can change her diaper without getting out of bed. It's not really an issue for us.
Though, if DD has trouble going to sleep or falling back asleep, DH often helps me by taking care of her then so I can go ahead and get to sleep. Then, he will lay her beside me before he crawls into bed with us.
Depending on how much your LO eats over night (volume wise, not frequency), could you pump him some fresh right before you go to bed? Freshly pumped, it's good at room temperature for up to 8 hours.
BFP #2 12/20/11 | EDD 8/24/12 | Natural M/C 12/22/11
BFP #3 5/13/12 (Mother's Day!) | EDD 1/23/13 | Natural M/C 6/9/12 (blighted ovum discovered 6/7/12 at 7w1d)
"And to think when their little eyes opened, the first thing they saw was the face of Jesus."
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DH doesn't usually wake up to feed her (although he doesn't work right now due to a medical condition), but I have cut down on time that I'm awake by doing exactly what you said-take a bottle of BM out right before I go to bed and it's right there for me when she wakes up. She still sleeps in her RNP next to me, so I just pop the bottle in and she goes right back to sleep after she's done. I EP, so we always just use bottles.
It's also not bad that DH doesn't usually do nighttime feedings....she pratically STTN (she will usually wake up about a half hour to an hour before my alarm is set to go off) and once I'm up he takes care of her 100% so I can get ready. He also drops her off at daycare.
With my first daughter we would take a bottle out of the fridge before bed (it's good for about 4 hours, I think) or you can pump right before bed and it's good for 8 (I'd check though to be sure since it's been so long). My husband would decide if he wanted the first feeding or the second one. He usually picked the first feeding so I could sleep a little longer.
However, this time around (my second daughter) will not take a bottle at all (and if she does, she throws up everything she eats a few minutes later). My husband hates that he can't help at night especially since my baby seems to be teething and waking up often to eat and not wanting to go back to bed. My husband has no idea how often she's awake though because he sleeps through everything. I have to wake him up, but it's better than getting out of bed completely. I guess just see what your husband wants to do and figure out what works best for you. In your case, you may want to take the first feeding since then you will have a solid chunk of sleep before work (which is why my husband took the first one too)
In the beginning we shared the nights. When I was on maternity leave I'd let him sleep more but then when he took the next 3 weeks off he let me sleep a little more. Once we both were working we split the night equally and he'd feed DS a pumped bottle. Usually it would be in the fridge and DH would microwave a pyrex of water then put the bottle in the hot water bath to warm up a little. Right now DH doesn't do much at night since DS sleeps from 9:30 until 5-6am and since I am having a tough time keeping up with enough pumped milk I don't want to waste a bottle when I can get enough sleep feeding feeding DS on my own. DH has to get to work by 7am and i don't until 8:30am so I usually handle the rest of the getting ready from there.
The bumpie formerly known as First Time in MI
My DH helps out every weekend. He takes a feeding and so do I. I'm a teacher so I'm off in the summer, but he still volunteers to help ::swoon::
We have a bottle warmer with a cooler in LOs room. So we just put the bottle in there and he heats it up while he's changing her diaper.
Yes, you might be sporting boulders for boobs in the morning, but it will be worth it!
GL